• By PERRYN KEYS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 22, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

Now that a conference championship is out of the picture ...

Now that a winning season is out of the way ...

Now that Bryant Lee has moved to No. 1 in the Southern record book ...

The game’s the thing.

For archrivals Southern and Grambling, there’s this small matter of playing against each other.

At 1 p.m. Saturday in the Superdome in New Orleans, the Jaguars (6-3, 3-2 Southwestern Athletic Conference) and Tigers (6-4, 4-2) collide in the 36th Bayou Classic, and the two teams have little else to concentrate on other than giving their fans a show to remember. They often do.

The Bayou Classic often has a different feel to it. Blood runs a little hotter. Players seem to play a little harder. Coaches seem to bring out the best in them, and each other.

Just ask Rod Broadway.

Two years ago, Broadway — an East Coast guy who arrived at Grambling from North Carolina Central — led his team to the Western Division title in his first year, but got roughed up in a 22-13 loss to the Jaguars.

Then and there, he learned there’s a difference between the teams and the fans.

The football team’s first goal is to win the SWAC championship. The fans’ first goal is to win the Bayou Classic.

“You start the season, and they’ll tell you: ‘How you going to do in the Bayou Classic? How you going to do in the Bayou Classic? How you going to do in the Bayou Classic?’ It’s really all you hear about,” said Broadway, who, in his third year, added he now understands the game’s magnitude.

Even last season, amid the Tigers’ run to the SWAC title, Southern jumped on them for a 14-0 first-quarter lead before quarterback Greg Dillon rallied Grambling to a 29-14 win.